Far-right TV show editor Niemöller leaves after Hitler remarks

Joost Niemöller is stepping down as editor-in-chief of far-right broadcaster Ongehoord Nederland (ON), weeks after he said on air that Adolf Hitler had put certain things “very well”.

The broadcaster said the immediate reason was a “difference of view about the editorial direction and recent programming”, according to director-general Peter Vlemmix. Its statement, reported by NOS, runs to two sentences and does not mention the item that set off weeks of criticism.

In the late-July broadcast, Niemöller said there were “certain things of Hitler’s” he agreed with, aside from the Nazi leader’s antisemitism.

Co-presenter Raisa Blommestijn also backed a statement, put to the pair after a clip of a Hitler speech referring to Jewish people, that a cosmopolitan elite was inherently hostile to ordinary people. Both said they did not share all of Hitler’s ideology.

Media minister Rianne Letschert called the broadcast “terrible, distasteful, hurtful and unnecessary”, and the ombudsman for the public broadcasters logged dozens of complaints. The cabinet is examining whether ON can be forced out of the public broadcasting system, and Letschert has said a decision will come “very soon”.

Ongehoord Nederland joined the public broadcasting system in 2022 and has been reprimanded and sanctioned several times for breaching journalistic rules. Niemöller became editor-in-chief about 18 months ago.